Catching The Bouqet
by Miss.Heat
Summary: Things change between Beckett and Castle. Set during/after 2x12 "A Rose For Everafter". Multi-chapter. T for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

**Catching the bouqet.**

Summary: Things change between Beckett and Castle. Set after/during 2x12. Multi-chapter.

A/N: My first Castle fic. Please review.

* * *

"He's all yours."

Detective Kate Beckett didn't know what to answer.  
Why the hell did that woman think she'd want Castle all to herself?

She looked over at him, studying him.  
Yes, she admitted to herself, she found him to be handsome and attractive. He even made her laugh from time to time with his annoying ways.

Right now he just sat there, staring at nothing, an absent expression on his face.  
Kate wondered what he was thinking about. Maybe how he regretted letting Kyra go for the second time, she thought, recognizing the nagging feeling that rose within her._ Jealousy_.

Why was she jealous of a girl, because of a man she didn't want? And even if she'd want him - which, she told herself, she didn't - Kyra was going to be married to another man within two days.

Kate sighed. Somehow she couldn't take her eyes off him. Maybe she felt like this because she was afraid that no one would ever think about _her _as 'the one that got away'.  
Yes, she finally thought. _"That's it. It has nothing to do with him."  
_So why the hell couldn't she stop looking at him?

All of a sudden Castle's head turned and he looked Kate in the eye, making her jump in her chair and quickly look away.  
She had to get herself together. She was at work and not in high school.  
With a sideglance she noticed him still looking at her, a smug grin plastered on his face. He'd seen her stare and was back to his annoying self now.

Sighing Kate started to get her desk cleaned up. It was time for her to go home and have a hot bath, or maybe a cold shower.

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A/N 2: Sorry for the short chap. I promise the next one's gonna be longer. Feel free to inspire me with your reviews. (Be kind. English is not my native language)


	2. Chapter 2

Kate was finally on her way home. She'd told Castle a distant goodbye and left the precinct quickly, hoping not to show too much of her confused state.

Standing next to her car, she rummaged through her purse, trying to find her car keys, getting even more irritated.

"You alright?" she heard Castle's familiar voice from behind her.

"Yes. I'm just…" Castle interrupted her, dangling the keys in front of her eyes.

"Looking for these?" he grinned. "I saw them lying on your desk."

Kate rolled her eyes. No wonder she didn't find them.

"Give them to me." She tried taking them from him, but he held them high above his head.

"You first have to tell me what's bothering you." He smiled at her, this time not his usual smug boyish grin, but a caring and sympathetic smile.

"Nothing's bothering me. I'm just tired is all and I want to go home." Kate lied.  
She couldn't tell him that she'd spent these last few hours thinking about her feelings for him. Running around the block in her underwear would have been less humiliating.

"Not true." He answered and turned his back to her when she jumped to get a hold of her car keys.  
"Castle…" she sighed. "Remember my gun?"

He turned around with a fake expression of shock on his face.  
Now it was her turn to smile.

"Now that's the face I want to see." He returned her smile.  
They stood like that for almost a minute, both contemplating what to say next.

Kate finally cleared her throat, intensively staring at her car keys in his hand.  
"Oh, yes. Your keys." he handed them to her without further ado.

She told him a quick "thank you" and walked around her car to get in and finally drive home.

When she put the key into the ignition Castle knocked at her passenger window. Rolling it down wordlessly, she raised her eyebrow.

"Would you like to grab some dinner before you head home, Detective?" There was that smile again. The smile that made her give in all too often. She thought for a second.

_Bad idea__, _she thought to herself.

"No thanks Castle." Kate smiled. "I'm tired and I need a shower." She said truthfully. She felt sticky and exhausted.

"Ooh can I join you?" he bounced up and down like an overexcited kid.  
"What?"

"I could help soaping you up." he suggested.  
Seeing the look on her face, he stopped and just grinned at her.

"Right. Maybe another time. Whenever you're up to it." He said in an earnest voice.

Kate smiled and started the engine. "I'm gonna go home now. Bye Castle."

"Bye Detective." Castle smiled back at her.  
"Oh and Kate?" she looked up at him again.

"Think about that dinner thing. Ball's in your court." He winked and finally walked away from her car with a wide grin on his face.

Kate just sat there with her eyes boring holes into the steering-wheel.

What had just happened? She had no idea.

All she knew was the slightly fuzzy feeling she had in her belly.  
She'd have to call Lanie when she got home.

When Kate entered her apartment she had a quick look into her fridge and quickly reheated the leftover chinese food from last night. For a second she almost regretted not taking Castle up on his offer for dinner.  
Finally fed and feeling slightly better, she made her way to the bathroom and dropped her clothes in a heap on the floor.  
Letting her imagination wander under the warm spray of water, she thought that maybe she regretted not taking him up on _that _offer as well.  
Shaking her head 'no' to herself she quickly turned the water on cold.

Lanie was gonna want to smack her.

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A/N: First of all: Thank you all for the nice rewievs! It's what keeps me going.  
Hope you like that chapter as well. I wanted to make it longer but it just felt like it had to stay like this.  
So stay tuned for Lanie's reaction and her precious advice. (Already working on it)


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you again for all the reviews. The chapter is a bit longer this time. Hope you like it.  
Lanie rocks! :D

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"Let me get this right… First Miss "Lost-love" tells you Castle's all yours, then he asks you out for dinner, hits on you big time, _again, _and then makes himself clear that it's all up to you now." Medical examiner Lanie Parish said excitedly at the other end of the line.

Kate had called her after settling down on her couch with a glass of red wine. Lanie had been listening intently while she had told her about her day, giving short statements now and then, a smile evident in her voice.

"So…" the M.E. paused dramatically, "What'cha gonna do?"

"Uhm. Nothing of course. Why?" Kate answered nonchalantly.

"Oh for god's sake, Katherine Beckett, would you _please_, just for once, be honest with me and yourself?!" The half-yelled rant made the young detective jump.

Before she could answer, her friend continued talking.

"I know for a fact that you _are_ interested in Castle. You were from the minute he entered your world, probably even before. I know you and I have the incredible ability to read you like a book, you know? You don't get to play 'cold fish' with me, honey." Lanie finished her monologue in a teasing voice.

Kate didn't know what to answer. She blinked into the semidarkness of her living room thinking about her friend's words. Why did that woman have to be so infuriatingly right?

"Fine. I'll think about it." She finally said, sighing loudly enough for Lanie to hear.

"Uhuh. So you admit to having a soft spot for Castle?" She was clearly enjoying herself, Kate could tell from the mocking tone in Lanie's voice.

Getting no response, the physician continued. "Looks like you got yourself some serious boy-trouble, girlfriend." She laughed. "I'd bet my ass you're blushing right now."

"Am not!" Kate quickly replied, feeling like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Are too!" Lanie giggled.

....

Things had clearly gotten out of hand. Lanie had managed to get her from telling about her day to admitting she had feelings for a certain writer.  
_Damn!_, the savvy detective thought. She had to put an end to this.

"Fine. I'm gonna go sleep now. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Alright, honey. Have sweet dreams about your writer-boy. See you tomorrow." Lanie chuckled.

The next morning Kate arrived at the precinct early as always. She busied herself doing some paperwork, not daring to think about what to say to Castle when he arrived.  
Maybe he wouldn't be coming since they had no new case to work.  
And what would she say to him? Clearly he didn't expect her to just come up with dinner plans by herself, did he? She was not going to say anything.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a fresh cup of coffe was placed in front of her.  
Kate looked up to see Castle standing at her desk with a bright smile on his face.

"Good morning, Detective."

"Morning, Castle." she said and looked back down to her paperwork.

She heard him moving around but tried to concentrate on her work until she found him sitting right next to her on a chair, looking over her shoulder.

"What'cha doing?" he chirped.

Kate turned her head so she was facing him. "I'm trying to catch up on some paperwork, which is not going to happen if you're distracting me the whole day."

"So, I'm a distraction to you, huh?" he grinned.

Quickly deciding to change the subject, she pushed back her chair and rummaged through a desk drawer, to conceal her blush.

"Castle, is there anything else? I really need to work." Kate said.

"Actually, yes." He held up an envelope and smiled at her.

"Kyra sent me an invitation for the wedding tomorrow. Well actually she sent US an invitation. She wants you to come too."  
_  
Oh for christ's sake_, Kate thought. Why was everyone trying to set them up?

She stared at the invitation with a disbelieving look on her face.

"So, what do you say?" Now he actually grinned from ear to ear.

"I don't know… I'll think about it. Now go and do something useful, I've got work to do."

"Alright. I'll let you work if you promise to think about it." He smirked and got up. "I'll leave that as a reminder." He placed the envelope in front of her computer screen and left.

And then Kate had actually a few hours time to catch up with her work.

....

Around lunchtime she got a call from Lanie, asking if she would meet her for lunch.  
A few minutes later they met at the new Thai restaurant two blocks down from the precinct.

"So, any news?" Lanie had asked after they'd placed their orders.

Kate smirked but remained silent for a minute. With a sigh she told her friend the news.

"Kyra invited us to her wedding tomorrow."

The physician's eyes widened in astonishment. "So no dates yet but you're already doing weddings? Are you gonna go?"

"I don't know. I don't think I feel comfortable with Kyra around." Kate confessed.

"Still jealous? Katie, she's getting married to another man. And it's _you_ writer-boy is hitting on all the time." She was mocking her again.

"He is _not_ hitting on me. He's just trying to annoy the hell out of me."

"Honey. He's following you around all the time, even if there's nothing relevant for his research going on. And I don't have to mention the sex scene again, have I?"

Kate blushed. She knew every word of that scene by heart. Heat and Rook were her and Castle's alter-egos. When remembering the scene, she had trouble not picturing herself and him in that juicy situation. It was strange thinking about the fact that he'd pictured her while writing it. Just the thought awoke very primal instincts within her. _Crap_.  
Kate finally sighed but didn't dare to look up at her friend. Lanie'd see right through her.

"I told him I'd think about it. Please, let's not talk about it anymore." With that she drove her fork into the food.

"You should go."

"Lanie!"

"I'm just saying." She held up her hands and smiled.

When the two of them arrived back at the precinct Castle sat at Kate's desk, head on the table, sound asleep.

Lanie raised a suggestive eyebrow at her friend and grinned.

Kate rolled her eyes and kicked hard against the chair.

"Wakie wakie, Castle."

"Just 5 more minutes, mommy." He mumbled and buried his head even deeper in his arms on the table.

"Come on Castle. Get up." Still no movement.

"I'm gonna go to the wedding if you get up now and leave me to do my work for the rest of the day." Kate couldn't believe she'd just said that. Even Lanie looked at her with wide eyes.

In one heap Castle stood beside the chair, eying Kate mischievously.

"Really?" he winked at her. "Oh, hi Lanie."

"Hey Castle. So, Kate, really?" the M.E. smiled.

"Uhm." Kate thought for a second. How was she going to get out of this?

"Detective, you wouldn't just say something like that to trick me into getting up, would you? That'd hurt my feelings." The writer said, making his best puppy dog eyes.

Realizing what she'd gotten herself into and that there was no way out, Kate finally gave in. "Fine. I'll do it. Under one condition."

"And what would that be, Miss Beckett?" Castle grinned from ear to ear.

"It's not a date." She answered dryly.

He grinned even wider.

"Not a date then. Shiny!"

"Shiny?" Kate raised her eyebrows.

"Yeah. Shiny. Don't know where that came from." Castle said with a distant voice and then focused back on the two women in front of him.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Kate. Bye Dr. Parish." And with that he danced around Kate's desk to get his coat and left the precinct in a cheery mood.

Kate was left standing in the middle of the precinct, dumbfounded, staring after him.

Lanie just put a hand on her shoulder and sighed.

"Honey, this _so_ is a date."


End file.
